What are some of your guys tips when it comes to interview? No matter how prepared I am, I get really nervous when I'm being interviewed (especially when there's 3-4 people there). How did you guys prepare for vet school interviews? Or ways to make you not as nervous when talking to the interviewer? Thank you!
Interview Tips?
- Thread starter hna028
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SDN has a lot of interview info for most schools - common questions, interview format, that sort of thing.
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I looked through SDN's interview info for the schools. As for being nervous, I don't know how much you can do about that. Of course you're going to be nervous. Try your best to relax, and remember that they do understand you're nervous. Don't blurt out the first thing that comes to mind when they ask you a question. Take a few seconds to plan out your answer, and do your best to speak calmly. Remember to smile!
I did two mock interviews for practice. One was with my major adviser and the other was through the Pre-Professional advisement office at my university. They set it up just like a real interview where they read my vmcas application and my supplementals for each school. They then had two staff members interview me for 30 min. and then discussed my responses for another 30 minutes and recorded the whole thing. I was always super nervous and this helped my nerves a lot, and just before my actual interviews I drank herbal tea to calm down and that helped a lot. My mock interviews were much more difficult and scarier than my real ones so they ended up being very pleasant conversations.
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I went through the SDN submitted questions from students who have gone through the interviews. My uncle, who hires for his company, interviewed me using those questions. Though he said he couldn't give me feedback on my answers, he did give me feed back on how I answered (confidence, tone, word usage, etc.). My mom went with me as well as a fun mother-daughter trip and she was definitely an anchor. I started to freak out a little bit in the car on the way to the interview and when we parked, she said, "You have to buck up buttercup. You're one of 300 interviewing and if you're going to quit now, you're done." I suggest having someone go with you if you know you're the type of person who psyches themselves out. Before we had even left Denver, I had vomited twice and she asked two questions, "Are you pregnant?" "No." "Are you nervous?" "Yes." "Well, you have 24 hours to figure it out. Here's some water, here's your toothbrush. I'll get your stuff." The tough love definitely helped me get my life together there.
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Kid you not, this is a question I am asked every time I tell her I'm under the weather. I don't even have to vomit. I think the desire for grandbabies is kicking in. My grandpa straight up said that he doesn't care if there is a SO in the picture. They want babies now!
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Lol that's crazy! My parents have known for a very, very long time that babies/marriage have been far down on my list.
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I would love to have a ton of kids!!! But it really depends on other life situations.
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I've done a couple of mock interviews & thought they were awful! For one of them I only had one very--ahem--snobby interviewer that asked really simple questions and expected some profound, philosophical answer to them. She made it really unpleasant. The other one was just scary. O_O
From what I've seen through the forums though the actual interviews usually aren't quite as scary as the mocks (maybe because your adrenaline kicks in and you realize it's the real deal, so you just suck it up and go with it?). I've always been the type of person who usually gets pretty nervous during things that aren't quite as important, but once the actual event takes place, I'm able to smother my fears and somehow clear my mind.
From what I've seen through the forums though the actual interviews usually aren't quite as scary as the mocks (maybe because your adrenaline kicks in and you realize it's the real deal, so you just suck it up and go with it?). I've always been the type of person who usually gets pretty nervous during things that aren't quite as important, but once the actual event takes place, I'm able to smother my fears and somehow clear my mind.
